1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a product dispenser, and more particularly to a gravity feed product display dispenser for holding a plurality of stacked products and orienting each product when it reaches a withdrawal position, at a display angle to expose the top surface of the product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, gravity feed product dispensers stack the product containers held therein vertically. When a product is desired, the consumer pulls the product container that is in the withdrawal position, i.e. at the bottom of the vertical stack, horizontally towards himself until that container is completely freed from the stack. After the product container in the withdrawal position is freed from the stack, the product container that was immediately above the freed container, i.e. the penultimate container, falls downwardly into the withdrawal position due to gravity. Likewise, the remaining product containers in the stack each fall downwardly one position.
Gravity feed product dispensers vary in how the product containers are oriented in the vertical stack and how the product container in the withdrawal position is oriented. With respect to the vertical stack, product dispensers either hold the product containers therein one atop the next with the containers disposed horizontally relative to each other or with the containers disposed vertically on edge relative to each other. Depending upon the dimensions of the product containers, it is most often the case that when product containers are disposed vertically on edge relative to each other in the vertical stack, fewer containers can be stacked in the same amount of space as when the containers are stacked horizontally relative to each other.
With respect to the orientation of the product container in the withdrawal position, generally gravity feed product dispensers orient this product container in such a way that the top surface of the container is not visible to the consumer before selecting the product. One of the disadvantages of this configuration is that only a small portion of the sides of the product container in the withdrawal position can be seen by the consumer. Any information displayed on the top surface of the product container is hidden from view from the consumer until the product container has been completely removed from the stack. Often, information on the top surface of the product containers is of value to the consumer before a purchase is made such as expiration or quality dates.
In addition, normally the product container in the withdrawal position is oriented in the same manner as the product container in the penultimate position. The disadvantage of this configuration is that in order to remove the product container in the withdrawal position, the weight of that container along with the combined weight of all of the other product containers in the stack must be overcome in order to remove just the product container in the withdrawal position.